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A Second Look at the Vicious Cycle
Vicious
Cycle Part 2
The
possible Greenville City layoffs
By Bob Rhoades
The announcement last week of possible layoffs in the city employee
ranks has stirred the ire of a few people. Others who can remember back
longer than six months have pushed a couple of questions my way. A
couple of people have forwarded responses they received from their
councilmen that weren’t really what I would have expected, especially
one from the Council President. It seems that many times councilmen and
other elected officials forget that we the people elect them to do our
bidding and listen to what we have to say. Unfortunate, and so go the
fortunes of the City of Greenville.
Here are some points that all should consider before any decision is
made on the matter.
This appears to be some unknowing person’s idea of an answer to a
question, not the answer to the city’s lack of money. It also appears
that there was no risk assessment done nor was the previous 2001 risk
assessment taken into consideration. Wikipedia lists a risk assessment
as a step in a risk management procedure. Risk assessment is the
determination of quantitative or qualitative value of risk related to a
concrete situation and a recognized threat (also called hazard). In
other words what do we have here and are the chances normal or above
normal that something bad might happen at that business. Before recent
cuts, the staffing level of GFD was established in 2001. Since then
many more buildings have been built that require protection and others
have been added onto or relocated to larger facilities. This includes a
110,000,000 gallon per year ethanol plant in addition to the other
buildings built (Whirlpool - factory and distribution center, Wayne
Hospital expansion, Buchy Foods, Lowe's, Spartec Plastics, BSG, Ramco,
Tiger Eye, more nursing homes, etc.) since 2001.
Strategic planning: Is there a strategic plan for the City of
Greenville and if there is what does it say about the fire department?
The old saying “lack of planning on your part may not constitute an
emergency on our part” seems to apply here. Since this restructuring
committee was formed, were they given access to a document like this or
just charged with coming up with an idea?
Unemployment: Apparently the city administration doesn’t subscribe to
the old adage of remembering history lest it repeats itself. Last
winter the city laid off a police officer. The unemployment for that
officer was 50% of the salary. So instead of the $500,000 the city
hopes to realize from killing off the infrastructure, they will
actually only save $250,000 or less. Additionally adding to the ongoing
problem of attracting new business to our city. Is that really worth it?
The citizens were assured in 2005 when issue 10 was put to a vote (1/2%
income tax addition) that the increase would keep the safety forces
intact. Is that still in effect and if so what is going on with it.
City council rejected the assumption of adding Emergency Medical
Services (EMS) in 2009. This would have reduced property taxes from 3
mils to 1 mil or lower and would have eventually generated a surplus to
offset costs above the cost of the program. An additional benefit was
to have secure funding for all FD capital equipment needs through
around year 2035.
The city has been using estate taxes for all city capital improvements
which hasn't covered the requests and it expires 12/31/2012 (thanks
again governor). Issue 11 (1/4% income tax addition) failed in 2005 and
the city has done nothing else for capital improvements besides using
the estate taxes. Does someone have to bring this stuff up or should
they figure it out on their own?
Removal of a secretary position in the police and fire departments.
Question: who does their work when they are gone? Guess the police and
fire chief will have to do it. So you really want to pay Chief’s pay
for a person to answer the phone, to do the payroll, enter run reports
and do the general office procedures needed to keep both of the
departments accredited? Sounds reasonable.
Remove the city building maintenance person. This department was
already hacked by one and the remaining person’s hours cut. The grounds
of the city building show that also. They are still well kept, but not
as pretty as they once were. But maybe we don’t need to put on a good
front, maybe people will just like to be in Greenville whether it looks
good or not.
Remove one person from the Street Department by retirement. Did anyone
ask him if he was ready to retire? So we down size the street
department and then give them more work in the city building.
Remove the Assistant Fire Chief. Who will do his job? The proposal says
he’ll be moved back to Captain’s pay. Does this mean he’ll do the same
job as before and only be paid captain’s pay, just be paid captain’s
pay and put on a shift? There are only three shifts, so the junior
Captain is bounced back to Lieutenant? But can they do that, all of the
captains were appointed before the lieutenant’s position was created,
so they can’t be put in a position they’ve never been in before? Wow,
this should give the civil service board some headaches.
Re-establish the police and fire auxiliary. Indeed whose idea was it to
do away with them to start with, the cheapest protection we could get,
and all trained to the proper levels?
Reduce the fire department to 16 people 5 on each shift and a chief.
This effectively puts the manpower of the department back to 1980
levels. (See Risk Assessment above)
And last but not least, instead of seeking counsel from the City
Attorney who already draws a salary, seek the OK of Clemens and Nelson
of Dayton. How much did that cost? Just taking a guess, more than
likely the money paid to Clemens and Nelson since the first contract in
1972, would probably pay for all of the layoff proposals. Not a penny
of that money stayed in Greenville. One year during negotiations, there
were 100 city employees. Clemens and Nelson was paid $100,000 to
basically say that year to “handle” negotiations. If you do the math,
each employee could have been given a $1000 a year raise and everyone
would have gone home, and the money would stay here. It makes little
sense that the city can continue to pay Clemens and Nelson but have no
money to keep the infrastructure intact and take care of their own.
Perhaps that is the plan, lay everyone off so they can get rid of
Clemens and Nelson, but not hurt their feelings.
The fire department has not received a raise for two years. They were
scheduled to receive raises but gave them back to “help” the city
through tough times. They apparently thought that working with the
administration might help them if the going really got tough. So much
for that thought. There is a history with that. Four years ago,
Columbus Firefighters did the same exact thing to avoid layoffs. Six
months later, the city of Columbus began with layoffs and guess who was
first on the list?
I know, I know, life’s not fair! And no one expects politicians to keep
their word anyway. The letter that went out said it was from the City
Administration. It looks like no one really wanted to take credit for
it. Since this is Safety-Service director Rod Hale’s last few days with
the city, maybe he wanted to show everyone he could actually make tough
decisions. It would seem that all of these decisions would have had a
much better outcome if he had sat down and talked to his department
heads and the union presidents involved. But that didn’t happen. No one
knows if the city auditor was consulted by him or the Restructuring
Committee. It begs the question, just how much team is there in
Administrative Team? Doesn’t look like a whole lot.
Or maybe this is someone’s idea of a sick joke. Didn’t work, no one is
laughing!
In the last year, we’ve watched the thought of a new school go down the
drain, and now we’re about ready to see the flush handle involved in
the destruction of part of the infrastructure most of it in the fire
service. It would seem that little thought has been given to who will
perform the functions of those laid off, with the exception of the city
building maintenance person, and even that makes little sense. The
intention is to put city building maintenance on the street department,
but the proposal also includes doing away with a street department
position. This really is a well thought out plan!
It seems like the finance committee and Safety Service Director sitting
down and talking to the department heads would have made a bit more
sense. These folks aren’t the enemy. You hired them to run the
departments. In at least two cases, police and fire, they had to take a
test to prove that they knew what they were doing. The good faith
efforts of the employees involved probably won’t ever happen again
either. But life’s not fair, at least not in Greenville.
There was talk of changing the configuration of the work shifts in the
fire department. Someone needs to wake up. Greenville isn’t the first
place to have this problem and the associated problems we’ve talked
about here. Many have looked at it before. There are records and
reports documenting those problems, both with the International
Association of Fire Fighters and the Ohio Municipal league. The shift
schedule the FD now works is a universal schedule. Everyone works it
with a few exceptions. The one major exception to the 24 hour on 48
hour off schedule and that is in the Northeast, especially the FDNY.
They work a 10 hour day shift, 14 hour night shift. This is because the
number of working fires they encounter in the 10 hour day shift or the
14 hour night shift isn’t conducive to maintaining good health.
Kettering works 8 – 5 and has volunteers at night. But that is the way
it started years ago. In general, the way the place starts is the way
the place stays.
The City shot itself in the foot when the Fire Department Auxiliary was
dismantled last year. These paid call guys had all the training, all
the gear and were accepted members of the fire department. The union
had a hand in picking them and training them. They were also the
cheapest help available. Above all they did a good job. Their origins
go back to WWII and Civil Defense when they were called Minute Men.
The decisions being made here should not be taken lightly. The
Administration would have us embark on a project of dismantling the
infrastructure of the city and we can ill afford that at this time.
Acquiring this goal by attrition makes sense and will accomplish the
goal. However, the administration needs to have another goal. Make it a
priority to get to know your own departments so you understand why they
do what they do. Spend a couple of shifts in a cruiser, have them get
you a set of turn out clothes and spend a couple of shifts with the
fire dept. The next week report to the garage, the water plant or the
sewer plant. When you know what they do, it will be much easier to
understand why they all make the decisions they make. Then you’ll have
a team.
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